The net large has its hand in a heap of things, from Wi-Fi routers to driverless cars. However the explanation it makes thus a lot of money has nothing to do with devices. The company’s CFO also provides additional detail around the “pause” of Google Fiber.

You’d be forgiven if you thought Google was moving beyond its search engine, which allowed it to become one of the foremost powerful firms on the planet.

Once all, Google’s biggest recent announcements are around devices: a replacement phone known as Pixel, the first real Google phone; a smart home hub; a replacement streaming video device; and a Wi-Fi router. The company additionally regularly makes headlines for a lot of formidable fare: driverless cars, Wi-Fi-beaming balloons and delivery drones.

Four times a year, however, we get a stark reminder of what makes all those things potential. No surprise, the cash cow is the Google search engine. Quarter after quarter.

On Thursday, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said it recorded $twenty two.four billion in sales within the three months ended September thirty, surpassing analyst forecasts of $22.05 billion. Roughly 90 p.c of that revenue came from advertising, particularly search ads.

Profit, after some costs, came in at $nine.06 a share, compared to analyst expectations of $eight.sixty four per share.

“Once once more, the primary driver was mobile search,” Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said during a conference decision with analysts. The corporate has created huge investments in making an attempt to form sure Google is still the top choice in search, as people pay more time on their phones and fewer time on desktop computers.

Still ‘committed’ to Fiber’s vision

The individuals who run Alphabet understand Google’s success in search allows the company to pursue its ambitions in alternative areas. To focus on that success, they restructured as a holding company last year.

Below Alphabet, the search engine and alternative core internet services, like Gmail and Maps, remained part of Google. Alternative divisions, like X, the moonshot factory, and Verily, a life sciences effort, became separate companies underneath Alphabet. Those are the “alternative bets” Porat is concerning.

The fantastic thing about that structure? It allows Alphabet to spotlight how abundant money search services create even because it spends on different comes.

And that’s helpful as a result of Google’s search business rakes it in as alternative elements of the Alphabet empire struggle.

Nest, a sensible home unit, went through a very public debacle earlier this year when staff complained concerning the direction of the corporate. CEO Tony Fadell ended up stepping down. Earlier in the week, Google Fiber said it had been putting its enlargement plans on “pause” and Craig Barrett, CEO of the project, stepped down. He said layoffs are coming back.

“As we reach for moonshots that can have a huge impact in the longer-term, it’s inevitable that there can be course corrections along the way and that some efforts can be a lot of successful than others,” Porat said.

Porat did say Alphabet continues to be “committed” to Fiber’s mission of providing “always-quick” networks. She added the decision to pause its growth is predicated on the corporate’s want to “better integrate some of the technology work we tend to’ve been developing” for the project, rather than going full steam ahead with deploying Fiber in new cities.

Those newer businesses have a ton additional kinks to work out than Google’s core net services, and Porat said investors ought to take an extended-term read.